Mel Brooks’ ‘Blazing Saddles’ unequaled in film comedy

BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

Madeline Kahn spoofs the great Marlene Dietrich, Slim Pickens runs a railroad chain gang, Gene Wilder plays a drunken gunslinger and Cleavon Little stars as Rock Ridge’s new black sheriff.

Together, they make up the cast of the funniest, and one of the most socially conscious, screen comedies: Mel Brooks’ classic “Blazing Saddles.” This is Brooks at his side-splitting best, a movie that has no equals.

Brooks came close with “Young Frankenstein,” his black-and-white parody of the classic “Frankenstein” films. But “Blazing Saddles” is something different – a zany, no-holds-barred, non-stop, laugh-fest masterpiece.

Working from a script by five writers that included Brooks and Richard Pryor, “Blazing Saddles” finds the small Western town of Rock Ridge getting its first black sheriff. Brooks pokes fun at Western film conventions and uses his off-beat, crude humor to criticize racism.

Welcome to Top Five week at Sneak Prevue. Today’s edition: The Top Five Film Comedies.

Nothing can top the disastrous excess of ‘Exorcist 2’

EXORCIST 2: THE HERETIC (1977)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

Between Richard Burton’s bizarre overacting and the incomprehensible and totally preposterous plot, “Exorcist 2: The Heretic” makes you wonder what the film makers were thinking.

Director John Boorman and company faced an uphill battle from the start: They attempted to create a sequel to the most frightening horror film of all time. That they failed is no shock.

What is surprising, however, is the depth of the failure. From the acting to the writing, directing and special effects, this movie is a major, high-profile train wreck.

Boorman frantically tried to salvage the film by re-editing it days after its initial release. But his efforts made a disastrous film worse. “Exorcist 2: The Heretic” is, without a doubt, the single-worst motion picture sequel ever to grace the big screen.

Welcome to Top Five week at Sneak Prevue. Today’s edition: The Top Five Worst Film Sequels.

‘West Side Story’ tops my list of Top Five Best Screen Musicals

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BROADWAY: HOME OF THE STAGE MUSICAL

Earlier this month, I wrote about two recent American film musicals I love: Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe” featuring Beatles songs and Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

Musicals are a home-grown escapist entertainment – an important part of American popular culture that was born on the Broadway stage and later successfully moved to the big screen.

The genre demands a willing suspension of disbelief and your complete acceptance that characters at any moment will break out in spontaneous song and dance accompanied by an unseen, full-blown orchestra. If you do, if you wholeheartedly accept the basic conventions of a musical, you can often find yourself swept away.

While I have seen great film musicals in recent years, including versions of such stage hits as “Evita,” “The Producers” and “Hairspray,” the heyday of the genre was in the 1950s and early 1960s when a rich stable of long-running Broadway productions graced the screen.

Today, in honor of one of my favorite film genres, I open “Top Five Week” at Sneak Prevue with my picks for the top five film musicals. I will share other Top Five picks in other genres Monday through Thursday of this week – so don’t forget to bookmark this site and visit often.

Bad movies I love: Joe Dante’s hilarious ‘Jaws’ rip-off ‘Piranha’

PIRANHA (1978)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

I loved drive-in theaters and the cheap, trashy films that often played there – usually melodramatic revenge dramas, car-chase thrillers and rip-offs of high-profile, big-budget movies from major studios.

By the mid- to late 1970s, the spate of “Exorcist” clones significantly slowed. In its place came a series of “Jaws” rip-offs that saw fair to middling success from people hungry for the same thrills and scares they experienced when they saw the 1975 Steven Spielberg classic.

“Grizzly” led the way in 1976 with its story of an 18-foot rampaging grizzly bear. The next year saw “Tentacles,” about a killer octopus, and “Tintorera,” about a killer tiger shark. Then, in June 1978, the sub-par sequel “Jaws 2” hit screens.

My favorite is a small film that opened in drive-ins and second-run  houses in August 1978. Joe Dante’s “Piranha” belongs to the class of films that are so pathetically bad, so poorly acted, so horribly directed that they instantly become a classic unequaled in cinema history.

Sneak Prevue Mailbag: Waiting forever just to see a movie

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

I have stood in line literally hours just to buy a ticket to see a film high on my want-to-see-list – a list that through the years has included “Earthquake,” “The Towering Inferno,” “Jaws” and “Star Wars.”

I know “Earthquake” and “The Towering Inferno” are embarrassing, guilty pleasures. But, hey, “Earthquake” played at the Joy Theater in downtown New Orleans in late 1974 accompanied by that wonderful, ear-piercing gimmick called Sensurround (“Feel it as well as see it in Sensurround”).

And I couldn’t wait to experience a real, live, 9.0-magnitude, end-of-the-world, Armageddon-is-coming earthquake in the comfort and safety of a climate-controlled movie theater. I wasn’t disappointed.

But “Jaws?” Now that’s a different story. In fact I’ll talk about my experiences with that film when I answer questions in this week’s edition of the Sneak Prevue Mailbag. As you no doubt already have discovered, the Sneak Prevue Mailbag feature moves to Fridays beginning this week.

‘Manhattan’ remains Woody Allen’s timeless masterpiece

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

MANHATTAN (1979)

One year after winning the Oscar for “Annie Hall” in 1977, Woody Allen helmed his first serious drama – an absorbing film no doubt inspired by one his favorite directors, Sweden’s Ingmar Bergman.

Diane Keaton heads an ensemble cast for “Interiors,” the story about three sisters whose lives spiral downward when their parents divorce. The drama was a milestone in Allen’s career.

And, I believe, “Interiors” made Allen a better filmmaker, someone who is unafraid to tackle honest, emotional issues. It also prepared him well for his next film, “Manhattan,” a comedy-drama that opened in theaters the following year.

Allen has created many great films in his career, from the laugh-fests of the 1970s like “Sleepers” and “Love and Death” to the rich, character-driven comedies of the 1980s like “Broadway Danny Rose” and “Radio Days.”

But of all his works, “Manhattan” is the one I enjoy the most. “Manhattan” ranks up there with “Annie Hall,” “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Everyone Says I love You” as the best of Allen’s lengthy screen career.

Fosse’s ‘Lenny’ offers intimate look at controversial comic

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

LENNY (1974)

With “Lenny,” his third film as director, Bob Fosse was on a role – one that almost led to his own self destruction dramatized five years later in the autobiographical musical “All That Jazz.”

“Lenny” from 1974 cemented Fosse’s reputation as a daring, visionary film maker. Fosse’s biographical drama stars Dustin Hoffman in a standout performance as comedian, satirist and social critic Lenny Bruce.

Fosse won the Best Director Oscar for “Cabaret” in 1972. “Lenny” proved the award was no fluke.

Filmed in semi-documentary style, “Lenny” is based on the stage play of the same name and tells the rise, fall and death of Bruce – one of the most controversial comics of all time who saw himself as a crusader for free speech.